David Axelrod
David M. Axelrod (born February 22, 1955) is a Democratic political consultant based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He is perhaps best known nationally for his work on the campaigns of Barack Obama for the United States Senate in 2004 and for President in 2008.
Axelrod is the senior partner of AKP Message & Media, and was a political writer for the Chicago Tribune. He is also a supporter of Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, who helped Axelrod found his firm (under the name Axelrod and Associates). He is widely regarded as the top political consultant in Chicago.
Early life and career
Axelrod and his sister, Joan, grew up in Manhattan, the children of a psychologist father and a mother who worked as a journalist at PM, a left-wing newspaper of the 1940’s, and later ran focus groups for an advertising firm. After high school, he attended the University of Chicago.
At the age of 27, Axelrod became the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist for the Chicago Tribune. In 1984, he joined the campaign of U.S. Senator Paul Simon as Communications Director; within weeks he was promoted to Co-campaign Manager.
Axelrod is a longtime strategist for Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and styles himself a "specialist in urban politics". In addition to Obama's, Axelrod has consulted for other state and national campaigns, including New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's successful 2006 races, and former Senator John Edwards' 2004 bid for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He also served as the chief political adviser for Representative Rahm Emanuel during the 2006 mid-term Congressional elections in which Democrats gained a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
2008 Presidential Campaign
Axelrod is credited with engineering Barack Obama's unconventional presidential campaign that drew upon Web 2.0 technology and viral media to support a grassroots insurgency strategy. Obama's web platform allowed supporters to blog, create their own personal page, and even phonebank from home. Axelrod's elaborate use of the Internet helped Obama to organize under-30 voters and to build over 475,000 donors in 2007, most of which were internet donors contributing less than $100 each. The strategy stood in contrast to Hillary Clinton's campaign that benefited from high name recognition and strong support among established Democratic leaders.
Axelrod contributed to the initial announcement of Obama’s campaign by creating a five-minute internet video that was released on January 16, 2007. He would continue to use man-on-the-street biopic video to create intimacy and authenticity in his political commercials. Axelrod also helped the campaign to maintain a clear and consistent message of hope, change, unity, and moving beyond old divisions (e.g. post-partisan, post-racial).
